I’m often asked what I say to bring out the expression I want when photographing a portrait. The truth is there is no magic phrase – but there is a method.

One of the keys to portrait photography is knowing how put your subject in the right frame of mind to get the expression you want. Rather than telling someone to “smile” or “look confident”, you plant the thought in their mind.

On the eve of the 2006 NBA finals the NBA helped pull together a shoot of Miami Heat All-Star guard Dwyane Wade, who at the time was sick as a dog with a 103 degree fever.

Wade’s confidence overtook his fever when I handed him a gold-painted basketball and told him to picture it as the gold ball at the top of the NBA championship trophy.

Two weeks later, Wade was hoisting a NBA championship trophy with the gold basketball on top. Any correlation between these two events? I like to think so…

Christmas came early to Miami Heat fans as the three Kings of Basketball D-Wade, LeBron and Chris Bosh settled into our little paradise of sand and sun! I still can’t believe this! Miami’s new Dream Team has a combined 17 All-Star appearances in the last six years. I’ve seen a lot of great basketball up close over the years. I was court side in New Orleans when Jordan won his NCAA title and again when the Lakers’ Magic, Kareem and Worthy won two of their four titles, watching it from the best seat in the house and afterwards was caught in champagne crossfire between Magic and Riley. But I’ve never seen anything like this. Ever. Nobody has. Three superstars in their prime. Three superstars giving up money and putting ego aside to play for a championship. Welcome to Miami, LeBron and Chris. D-Wade, thanks for 7 great years…the best is yet to come!

The Miami Heat retired the jersey of one of my favorite Heat players All-Star point guard Tim Hardaway at their NBA home opener against the New York Knicks. I always enjoyed watching Hardaway on the court and had lots of fun photographing Hardaway for an ESPN the Magazine article on his killer ankle-breaking-UTEP-two-step-crossover-dribble…

Dwyane Wade, aka D-Wade, ended his playoff run far to early for a basketball god who single-handedly turned around his franchise’s fortunes on his thanks to one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. All that’s left is to praise the greatness he showed averaging 30.2 ppg for a team that offered little supporting cast.

I began my career shooting action sports photography but gravitated toward spending time photographing portrait of athetes. Here is my favorite Dwyane Wade photo and the story behind it..

I photographed Dwyane Wade right before the start of the 2006 NBA finals where he single-handedly ripped the Dallas Mavericks to shreds. (Sorry about that M-Cube, but you know it’s true…) D-Wade and I had just wrapped a shoot on the eve of the NBA finals and even though he was sweating out a 104 degree fever, I pleaded for one more shot – just for us. So quickly shot this against a black background in the bathroom of Dwyane’s Pinecrest mansion.

Dwyane’s little sister was with us on the shoot and forget whatever you think about NBA stars – little sisters are little sisters – no matter how famous you may be. As I shot his photo, she laughed in the face of my NBA god with a little-sister taunt of “You know he does that thing with his eyebrow and calls it Sexy D-Wade.”

If I didn’t already idolize everything about the dude before, getting called out by his little sister pretty much wrapped it up.